US Air Force Giving Philippines Turboprop Attack Aircraft

An air-to-air right side view of an OV-10 Bronco aircraft of the 27th Tactical Air Support Squadron over George Air Force Base.

The Philippines will get retired turboprop light attack aircraft through the U.S. Air Force, that has already begun the operation of competing a legal contract to have the planes disassembled before shipping overseas.

Sources in Philippines said government entities was offered the North American OV-10 Bronco twin-turboprop light attack aircraft captured, after it had requested the transfer of spare parts for your type being stored with the U.S. government. The Philippines subsequently inspected the aircraft and discovered them ideal for use.

We discovered that the aircraft, which have been retired from U.S. military considering that the mid-1990s, will likely be provided free-of-charge for the Philippines, probably as part of an assistance package to the country’s military. However, the south-east Asian country will be liable for that costs of transporting them through the

United States, with the transfer supposed to take place later this year along with the aircraft likely to be prepared for service noisy . 2019.

In a solicitation posted about the fbo.gov website on July 19, the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command’s Life Cycle Management Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah said hello was seeking bids to disassemble four Rockwell OV-10 Broncos that may then be crated, shipped overseas and reassembled for the Foreign Military Sales case.

The solicitation also noted that the four aircraft are a mix of two OV-10A and a couple OV-10G+ aircraft. The aircraft were formerly owned by NASA, with all the two OV-10G+ heavily modified in 2015 and utilized by U.S. Special Operations Command for combat evaluation within the campaign against the Islamic State within the Middle East before being returned again to NASA.

The USAF solicitation hints at these modifications, noting that the two OV-10G+ aircraft had “over 5,000 new wires installed” in their last upgrade, with the bid winner being forced to withdraw the wiring for storage into the fuselage prior to their being shipped overseas the location where the wires will be rerouted within the reassembly process.

Earlier documents relating to the modifications had indicated that this aircraft were modified with a L3-Wescam MX-15Di Eletro-Optical turret, Link 16 tactical datalinks, full-motion video, a glass cockpit along with the capability to fire the BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System GPS-guided rocket.

The OV-10G+ were demilitarized and returned to NASA following the trials, having flown 120 combat sorties in less than ninety days. However, the Philippines is hoping to re-activate at least some of the modifications upon re-introducing the aircraft into its inventory.

The Philippines could be the last operator in the OV-10 Bronco, using its air force currently operating between eight and 10 aircraft. It also possesses several airframes which were placed into storage. The country has previously upgraded its OV-10s to utilize laser-guided bombs designated by troops about the ground, although these were not used during its recent operations against Islamic State-affiliated militants within the south in the country where only unguided rockets and bombs were used.